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Price blitz follow-up
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-31
Monday August 6th 2007 - Sunday August 12th 2007
August 16, 2007

THE official media maintained a one-sided perspective in reporting the on-going government clampdown on business. Almost all 63 of their stories (ZBC [26] and government papers [37]) approvingly reported on the blitz, whose success they measured on the basis of the number of arrests and convictions made, while simultaneously masking its negative effects. For example, almost half (14) of the reports carried by the government papers were unquestioning updates on the number of businesspeople that had been either arrested or convicted for defying government's price-cutting directive.

None of the official media viewed government's decision to re-register some private abattoirs barely a month after closing them, its upward review of commodity prices and the worsening public transport crisis as a reflection of the contradictions characterizing the blitz. For example, ZTV (8/8, 8pm) evaded these policy inconsistencies when it reported that government had "tasked CSC (Cold Storage Company) to sub-contract potential private abattoirs to supply butcheries with meat, which is scarce" without relating it to the authorities' earlier claims that the company had the capacity to satisfy national requirements. Neither did it question the criteria used to sub-contract the abattoirs.

The Sunday Mail (12/8) displayed the same docile coverage of the matter - as did The Herald (9/8)'s coverage of the public transport problems. The paper simply portrayed private bus operators as responsible for the crisis while presenting government as working tirelessly to resolve the problem through its public transport companies.

In line with this, the paper subordinated comments by private bus operator Esau Mupfumi - linking the transport problems to Noczim's incapacity to supply enough fuel - to Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo's attack of the private bus operators.

In its comment the next day, the paper simply amplified the minister's claims. To reinforce the notion that government's intervention was the solution to the transport crisis, it carried an apallingly puerile cartoon depicting passengers in a Zupco bus mockingly sticking their tongues out at a private bus operator who had allegedly been put out of business by the 'efficient' services of the government-run bus company.

The government papers' attempts to suffocate the negative effects of the blitz with reports that presented the authorities as being in control were also evident in their coverage of government's announcement of price increases. ZTV (9/8,8pm) passively stated that the Ministry of Industry had "approved prices" for various commodities, including a standard loaf of bread, without examining the viability of the new prices. It also did not seek business comment. The Herald (11/8) restricted its coverage to simply celebrating the development claiming: "With his statement and revision of a swathe of prices on Thursday, the minister of Industry . . . has made a major effort to consolidate the gains of the freeze while making production viable."

How this was so was not explained.

The official papers' professional ineptitude was mirrored by their sourcing pattern, which selectively used most of those outside government to reinforce the official line. See Figs. 4 and 5.

Fig. 4 Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig. 5 Voice distribution in the government Press

The private papers reported openly on the disastrous effects of the crackdown such as the serious commodity shortages, the chaos characterizing the blitz and the ineffectiveness of government's attempts to address these. For example, The Standard (12/8) reported unnamed sources in the baking industry noting that the newly announced government-approved commodity price hikes were inadequate in resolving production problems faced by industry. For instance, they pointed out that the bread price increase, from $22 000 to $30 000 a loaf, was "insignificant" because it was far below "the realistic price of . . . $49, 500 a loaf" industry wanted, adding that the main cost drivers in the production of bread, such as flour and fuel, were still not readily available.

Earlier, the Zimbabwe Independent claimed that government was backtracking on its clampdown after realizing that the exercise was an "economic disaster" as it was "undermining government's stakeholder-driven turnaround initiative, reducing government revenue, fuelling the parallel market, eroding investor confidence and militating against efforts to reduce inflation." The private media also recorded at least two accidents triggered by public stampedes for scarce commodities.

Zimdaily (9/8) reported the death of a four-month-old baby whose mother was involved in a "scramble for cheap eggs at Irvine's wholesale centre . . . ", while New Zimbabwe.com (9/8) reported that a woman "broke a leg" at Machipisa Police Station at an "auction of bread and fish . . . " The private media reports were part of the 36 they carried on the subject, 10 of which appeared in the private electronic media and 26 in the private Press.

The voice distribution in the private media, as reflected by the private Press, is shown in Fig 6.

Fig. 6 Voice distribution pattern in the private Press

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